People frequently find themselves multitasking between numerous chores distributed across multiple computing interfaces, applications, platforms, displays, and devices. For instance, due to the ever-increasing ubiquity of networked computing, users may now simultaneously participate in one or more communication sessions, such as chat or instant messaging (IM) sessions, while also shopping online, generating an employment-related document, scheduling vehicle maintenance, or other numerous tasks.
Active participation in a communication session often requires reading (or otherwise consuming), processing, and responding to the conversation within the communication session. Thus, even though computing devices have enabled users to simultaneously attend to separate and disparate tasks, users may still experience difficulty in the real-time performance of various functions associated with each. For example, it may be challenging for a user to actively monitor, track, and appear responsive to the conversation, while simultaneously comparing products on an e-commerce website, drafting a work-related memorandum, or consulting a calendar for availability to deliver their vehicle to a service station.
Because active participation in a communication session is challenging when the user's attention is diverted to other tasks, the user may risk the loss of opportunity to respond at critical junctures in the conversation. Accordingly, a user attempting to multitask may appear to other users as unresponsive and/or disengaged. Furthermore, the user may lose opportunities to provide their unique perspective to the conversation. More succinctly, the utility and user-experience of a real-time communication session may be degraded when the user attempts to distribute their attention across multiple tasks.